Cooper Legal welcomes today’s publication of the Chief Ombudsman’s opinion relating to the Ministry of Social Development’s processes for considering claims of abuse in care.

The opinion concludes that the Ministry’s process is or can be unreasonable in many respects, including:

1. Giving inadequate reasons for its decisions, including what information it reviewed and how the settlement amounts are justified by reference to the Ministry’s payment categories;
2. Refusing to accept allegations solely due to an absence of substantiating evidence in its own files;
3. The general rates of payment are arbitrary and unreasonable. The underlying benchmarks for payments are low and have not been adjusted for inflation, the degree of harm to a claimant is not considered, and there is no clear justification for the rates of payment when compared to some comparable international and domestic rates of payment; and
4. The basis for the rates of additional payments for breaches of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act is unreasonable, and an overly narrow range of cases will be accepted for such payments.

“We raised this complaint in 2020 due to our concerns that the Ministry’s process was significantly flawed, and it is vindicating to have many of those concerns upheld after a lengthy investigation”, says Cooper Legal Principal Partner Sonja Cooper.

“While the Chief Ombudsman’s recommendations to the Ministry were somewhat limited due to the promised Government redress scheme that we are expecting to learn more about in 2025, there are a number of helpful interim recommendations for improvement as well as guidance that will assist in the development of that redress scheme”, adds Cooper Legal Partner Sam Benton.

“In particular, in a week where it has been revealed that the Attorney-General and the Minister for Social Development raised cynical concerns about the need to lower the expectations of survivors of abuse in care, it is striking that the Chief Ombudsman opinion is that the Ministry of Social Development’s current settlement levels are arbitrary, unreasonable and inconsistent,” Mr Benton stated.

“In light of the Chief Ombudsman’s decision, it is imperative that the Government urgently confirms that the redress scheme it is currently designing will allow those survivors who have already accepted arbitrary and unreasonable offers from the Ministry of Social Development to revisit their claims under the new scheme,” Mr Benton concluded.

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